[Stations of the Cross 2018 was the third instalment of a project that began in 2016, in London. Curated by Dr. Aaron Rosen, Dr. Catriona Laing, and the Rev. John W. Moody, the exhibition took place at 14 iconic sites across Manhattan and incorporated old and new artworks to draw connections between the Passion and the plight of refugees. I reinterpreted Station 4—Jesus meets his mother—in the form of a site-specific multimedia installation at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.]
My response to Station 4 featured a short, handcrafted animation and backlit, digital collages exploring themes of mourning, exile, and maternal devotion. Drawing on the Shia Muslim remembrance of Husayn ibn Ali and Fatima Zahra, the project reflects on personal family histories of displacement during the Partition of India. It also draws parallels between Fatima and Mary as maternal figures within patriarchal religious contexts. The animation blends references from Shia rituals, Indo-Persian miniature paintings, and medieval European iconography. The two accompanying digital collages, Lullaby (I) and (II), meditate on maternal grief through imagery inspired by Islamic poster art and devotional objects. The work was also presented at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, in 2021. The presentation, in which I introduce my themes and inspirations in greater detail, can be accessed here.
